Menhaden harvest cut 20% –

BALTIMORE — Regulators cracked down on the harvest of Atlantic Coast menhaden, a small and oily fish that has a crucial role in the ecosystem. Meeting in Baltimore on Friday, a multistate fishery board cut the total harvest by 20 percent for at least two years. “This is a gamble, but it’s a good first step,” said Will Baker, president of the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The bay foundation — and other environmental and fishing groups — were hoping to cut the harvest by as much as 25 percent. http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/environment/menhaden-harvest-cut/article_1d1aaec6-46ff-54d6-8a17-ff280057e0be.html

NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?

While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here

ktuu.com – Last week, National Marine Fisheries Service officials made the decision to consider listing a harbor seal population in Lake Iliamna as endangered or threatened–yet another piece of Read More »

Today NOAA Fisheries NMFS announced revisions to the Harbor Porpoise Take Reduction Plan. Amendments include removal of the consequence closure strategy, including the Coastal Gulf of Maine, Read More »